hdv to prores and about hdv and prores and workflow

hdv and prores thoughts

-prores- capture on the fly- CON - no timecode to recapture your clips and breaks clips up it start/stop segments. 

capture as hdv - doesnt have this problem?? 

cant remember if hdv lets you batch capture?? should do think thats what i did??

but - editing in hdv takes ages apparently to render things. 

so either

1/ capture in hdv, set sequence setting to render as prores

2/if you want prores all the way capture as hdv - (to have your batch capture functionality and future recapture from source option.) then use compressor to transcode the capture files to prores. these will be exactly same files but in prores now. (thus avioding the start stop evil doing and also the 17 or so frames you loose when it cuts it in these places)

the n import them into fcp and edit them. full prores.

apparently - hdv isnt a good idea to bring into afx. 

um how to get footage from FCP to AFX, without exporting it as one file, I want it to work like an illustrator file in indesign - no i want afx to be like photoshop and fcp indesign. so when you make changes in one, it updates it back into fcp... fuck does it need premier for this??? noooo. 

one scripting app free 

"works well but doesn not bring over alot of stuff like transitions, plug ins and certain color correction on vids.
But def a good workflow if you need straight shots ."

http://www.creative-workflow-hacks.com/2007/04/15/final-cut-pro-to-after-effects-scripting-without-the-hassle/

what your meant to buy a software to do it? that is gay. 

http://www.automaticduck.com/products/

interesting notes about gamma and afx and fcp and rgb

The solution, or maybe "pain-in-the-butt workaround" is a better term for it, that I use is to keep After Effects RGB, always. I render out all my shots in the Aja 10-bit linear RGB codec; if you're on a Blackmagic system, I think they've got an equivalent 10-bit linear RGB codec you can use. 

If I want to render shots out of After Effects as ProRes files (I do this with our logos and vanity plates, for instance) I'll render them as 10-bit linear RGB, then bring them into Final Cut. This is an important step: In Final Cut, I select each clip in my bin and set the gamma to 2.2, instead of the default "Source." Then I drop them into a ProRes timeline and export a Quicktime. 

It's possible to change Final Cut's default gamma interpretation to 2.2 in Final Cut's preferences; it's operator choice whether you want to have everything come in as 2.2 or whether you want the default to remain "Source." 

http://www.lafcpug.org/phorum/read.php?1,229564,229564

afx beginners gotyas - read for common afx problems. 

http://ae.tutsplus.com/articles/11-frequently-asked-questions-about-after-effects/#more-1168

good run down of video fx softwares and discussions

http://www.videocopilot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10435

Aftereffects 3D world tutorial

Simulate a 3D world from photoshop bit, like constructing a scale model. Composit greenscreened person. 

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/building-a-3d-world-in-after-effects

It also shows example of what a storyboard cell should look like. 

Good collection of photoshop tutorials - montage

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/20-beautiful-photoshop-montage-tutorials/

and 

digital painters

http://www.tascha.ch/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=76

http://div.dyndns.org/art/

http://www.mentalmirage.com/blog/?p=41

http://dianeozdamar.over-blog.com/album-297387.html

Fast min-height Hack IE6

From a Drupal Module 

/* IE6 does not support min-height, using Min-Height fast hack from http://www.dustindiaz.com/min-height-fast-hack */

.calendar-calendar .inner {

  min-height:5em;

  height:auto !important;

  height:5em;

IE8 Internet Explorer 8 hacks, filters, issues, fixes, resources

IE8 has been released. Things to take note of Ive found so far;

Unhack for IE8
What is the hack for excluding IE8 in an IE stylesheet? IE8 has fixed the problems and dosnt need the hacks IE7 does. How to un-hack for IE8 in an ie only stylesheet. (mmm keyword density).

It is unclear whether hacks written for IE7 also apply to IE8.

What I want is to target in one stylesheet IE6, IE7 and not IE8 and above. I dont want to use conditional comment of lteIE7 incase say IE9 needs a bug hacking in this stylesheet. I want all IE hacks in the one stylesheet.

So - in summary the code to use for your ie.css stylesheet to select for IE6, IE7 and IE8 and above is as follows:

/*Nav positioning for IE 8 and above */
#nav {
margin-top: 175px; /*No hack here, same value as in main stylesheet, as IE8 renders this correctly*/
}

/*Nav positioning for IE 7*/
*+html #nav { /*Targeting IE7 in standards mode which it should be*/
margin-top: 144px;
}

/*Nav positioning for IE 5 and 6 only. This needs to stay below IE8s value in the document flow.*/
#nav {
_margin-top: 136px;
}

NOTES
-now that I look at it I can take out the IE8 line, because IE8 dosnt need a hack and the other selectors are specific for those browsers, but Ill leave it in just for reference.
-Properties starting with a *+html are for IE7(standards mode) only - possibly also targets IE8 if you have specified IE=8 in your meta tags which is a new microsoft feature with IE8 release, which we havnt for this site. If you have, perhaps use a different IE7 and below selector.
-Properties starting with a * html are for IE5, IE5.5 IE6 and IE7(quirks mode) only. This was bunging up IE6 it seems to override the underscore selector?? So i took it out - IE7 shouldn't render in quirks mode unless your doctype is wrong.
-Properties starting with an underscore _ are for IE 5 and 6 only.

Hack for IE8
I havn't tried this but look here
http://ladysign-apps.com/blog/archives/529

IE8 Compatibility View (Viewers can make the page render like IE7 if they want)
IE8 new Compatibility View note: It seems it gets my IE7 specific styling when in IE8 with 'compatibility view' switched on - this is good...
its what i was hoping for...

You (the coder) can make viewers see the page rendered like IE7, in IE8
by adding some code to your source, as a meta tag in the head, read here:
http://ladysign-apps.com/blog/archives/532
personally I think this is whigedy whigedy whak - but maybe if the whole site is broken in IE8 and client has no money at all for you to go through and fix, you could add this into the template as a temporary solution.

Drag... read this carefully: from http://www.evotech.net/blog/2009/03/ie8-css-support/
IE8 compliance mode / preventing IE7 rendering in the IE8 browser

Important to know is that IE8 has a button that allows users to render your page in IE7. If that button is clicked enough, your page will always render in IE7 for everyone (not just those who clicked the button). So, do you have to test your pages in IE8 in IE7 mode? No, you don’t. To ensure that your page is not rendered in IE7 mode inside the IE8 browser add the following meta tag to your pages:

(go to the link above) but i think its a bad idea - just lay out your IE only stylesheet to have your IE version filters in the right order, and then test in IE8 and IE8 compliance mode/IE7.

Ive only tried one little things so far, but it seems that IE8 in compliance mode is identical to IE7, so if your IE7 renders right, so should your IE8...

No more CSS expressions
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/10/16/ending-expressions.aspx
Ive not used these, except that I got some things done by Psd2Html awesome slicing service, and their ie.css had them in there. For example:

border-left: expression( (this===this.parentNode.childNodes[0]) ? "none" : "auto");

This might not be a problem because often these expressions were used to get around IE layout bugs, which are gone in IE8 so the expression isn't needed anymore anyway. I just checked that site that has them and all looks fine and dandy in IE8.

Its possible maybe that this could be used to select and hack for versions below IE8 in a stylesheet that is ie.css, a stylesheet for all versions of IE. Maybe thats what they (psd2html) were intending.

Resources so far:

Pretty good tips and points
http://www.evotech.net/blog/2009/03/ie8-css-support/

Decent prep to IE8 issues and features, with some useful snippets
http://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/prepare-your-site-for-ie8.shtml

Heres some pretty heavy info mainly for scripting and IE8 compatibility
http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2009/03/12/site-compatibility-and-ie8/

IE 8 hacks (targeting IE8)
http://ladysign-apps.com/blog/archives/529

Massive collections of IE hacks!!! all versions
http://css-class.com/test/bugs/ie/ie-hacks.htm

and here - this looks definitive - click on the examples to see more info and the code, pretty much everything your looking for will be listed here.
http://fu2k.org/alex/css/cssjunk/ie8/tests/
However I disagree with the entry for IE8 standards mode for *+html selector - in my tests IE8 DOES NOT read things which have *+html in front of them. Im using the full finished version downloaded today aswell.
I did read somewhere that it might implement it if you have added the meta tag that forces IE8 to render IE8...

here is a cool page list of IE bug fix examples
http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/tests/

The right way to edit a PDF in Illustrator CS3 Tutorial

Read this tutorial
http://www.graphic-design-employment.com/how-to-edit-pdf.html

Basically, in Acrobat, show your Advanced Editing palette, select the 'TouchUp Object' tool right click or control click on your document and go Edit Page, which opens the temporary file in Illustrator and do your edits. No importing, exporting, saving as etc etc.

I found this very useful because the PDF I wanted to edit had extra bleed and crop areas around it, (not visible in Acrobat) but visible in Illustrator, when you go just File>Open the PDF and edit it that way in Illustrator. But, when you save it, Acrobat now shows the bleed and crop which isnt what I want. Sure, I could probably just move the Illustrator artboard in a bit, and when you save back as a PDF I think CS3 automatically crops to the artboard size. But, that would require fiddling around with the artboard size, realigning the artwork, its just a hassle and Id prefer to alter the original file as little as possible, I dont want to have to think about crop areas and read up about all that just to make a few text changes to a document.